Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Five Ways to Avoid Boring Writing

At times, readers feel as if writers are using a completely different language, or at least a completely boring one. I tried to read three different books last week, two of which were
mysteries or sub-mystery genre. I couldn't force myself to plow through
the words between the covers.

I'm a avid reader. When I can't
find anything else, I may read the back of cereal boxes. But these books
defied my attempts to force myself to read them. So, I decided to
analyze the problem or problems as to why the reading was labored and
uninteresting.

Using three books (but not identifying them to
protect the poor authors) as examples, I can give several reasons that
books can be unreadable, things that an author needs to avoid. However,
this time I'll discuss five.

1.Too many subplots can become
confusing. Confusing, and thus losing, readers isn't a good thing. That
doesn't mean that having subplots is a bad thing, just that too many
spoil the book. Too many subplots makes the overall plot too complex.

2.
Making "make-believe" world unbelievable. Readers can suspend belief IF
authors develop a world in writing that a reader can accept, can
suspend belief enough to accept. However, a reader must be able to say,
"Oh, yes, I can see how that might happen if such a world or
circumstances did exist." Therefore, as Laura Whitcomb states (Writer's Digest, March/April 2009), "Readers need to buy into the reality put
forward by what they're reading." An author cannot go too far with a
plot point or not far enough as the reading audience is being prepared.
The plot cannot become too far fetched, or readers will not be able to
suspend belief enough to accept it.

3. Dialogue can't be just
talking heads. Action needs to be involved as well as conversation, and
conversation with action should move the plot along and reveal
character.

4. An unsatisfactory conclusion should be avoided. A
twist or surprising ending that has a good foundation laid in the story can be creative. An ending that does not "fit" is bad.

5. Forced emotion
can destroy believability. Most people do not sit mulling over their
inner most thoughts and emotions in the midst of action. Yet, I'm
discovering many novels that have a character do just that. Not only
does such needless and in depth thinking tell and not show, but it
becomes monotonous.

There, five ways that cause books to become targets for the waste basket, when avoided, can
improve a story. Of course more ways exist, but those can be covered
another time.

6 comments:

Good advice. Authors should take note. With the explosion of the Internet age, the opportunity to become a writer has been opened to many who otherwise wouldn't have their foot in the door. We must remember that being able to type doesn't make one a writer; good writing makes a writer.

So true. Also, self-publishing has flooded the book world with books that should never have seen the light of day. Yes, some self-published books are good, but they are lost in the piles of those not. Don't get me started on the "publishers" that print anything they get money to do.